RRR: Correspondence/envoy
853
year: 1170
initiator: Radulphus Sebastensis episcopus
recipient: Clergy and Christian faithful of the Church
text: Early 1170. [121] Radulphus Sebastensis episcopus, together with his convent, addresses a general letter to the clergy and Christian faithful of the Church [in the West]. He describes the wealth of relics of the prophets discovered in his church, including the bodies of Elisha, Obadiah and especially the bones of St John the Baptist, and he draws attention to the poverty of his diocese and the fact that the rebuilding of his church, which has been initiated, using the best stone, cannot be completed without financial assistance. He reports that, on the advice of other prelates in the Latin East, he has sent some of his canons to the West, carrying with them fragments of ashes and bones of St John the Baptist and relics of Elisha and Obadiah. He asks his readers to receive the relics as gifts, but also to provide the canons with properties from their endowments, in order to benefit from the prayers of intercession [of the communities that will be established on them]. On the authority of the patriarch of Jerusalem and drawing on the merits of the patriarchs and prophets represented by the relics in his church, he assures his readers of an indulgence, which will vary in proportion to the assistance given. He adds that if those who have vowed to make a pilgrimage to Compostela commute their vow to a gift to this building work of half their intended expenses, he will absolve them from their vow and penance. He promises all benefactors a share in the merits of the city of Jerusalem.
Early 1170. [121] Radulphus Sebastensis episcopus, together with his convent, addresses a general letter to the clergy and Christian faithful of the Church [in the West]. He describes the wealth of relics of the prophets discovered in his church, including the bodies of Elisha, Obadiah and... more
sources: Kedar, ‘Raising Funds’, pp. 454-5